WGN Authority Report June 1st

1 Jun , 2018

It was another busy week in esports with many of the leagues now being in full swing. The Overwatch League is halfway through its final stage of the season while the Call of Duty World League has now finally seen all teams play at least three games. Meanwhile the NBA2K League enters its final week of play before the Mid Season Tournament and Combo Breaker featured all the fighting game action anyone could ask for last weekend. With so much to cover let’s dive right in!

Overwatch League:

The Overwatch League is exactly halfway through the final stage of its inaugural season at this point, and New York is continuing to prove they are the most dominant team in the league. Starting off this stage with a perfect 5-0 record, it appears they are trying to ensure Boston isn’t the only team to complete a stage of the regular season without a loss. They have currently only dropped a single map for a total record of 18-1-1 in what has been a convincing performance for the back to back stage champs.

Despite having a perfect record New York isn’t alone in first place as the Los Angeles Valiant have been equally impressive to start this stage. Their match-up tomorrow will determine which team has a chance to end the stage with an undefeated record, and is certainly the match of the week to watch.

The Valiant’s impressive sweep over the third place Gladiators this week was a startling result to the highly anticipated Battle for Los Angeles. The Gladiators had also not lost a game heading into that match this stage, putting them at 5-1 now on the season. Regardless of which team comes out on top, LA fans have to be very happy about how their teams are looking heading down the final stretch of league play.

Call of Duty World League

We finally got to see Group B compete in Stage 2 of the Call of Duty World League as the first few weeks featured only Group A Action. The action was even more heavily anticipated than normal as this is the first time we have got to see the new OpTic Gaming roster in action.

After some abysmal recent performances the dynastic OpTic lineup was finally dismantled. Formal was shipped to Luminosity in a trade for Octane while Karma announced he would be taking a break from competitive play. To replace him, OpTic picked up Methodz from Rise Nation.

The moves appear to have worked wonders for OpTic so far as they currently sit atop the Group B standings. Dominant performances against Unliad Esports and Tainted Minds set them up for their final match of the week; an emotional match against Luminosity Gaming where both teams would be playing for something more than a regular season win. Ultimately the move appears to have worked out in OpTic’s favor, as they emerged with a decisive 3-0 victory.

Action returns for the final week next week before taking a two-week mid-season hiatus.

NBA2K League

The Blazers and Pistons remain atop the NBA2K League heading into the fourth week of play with perfect 3-0 records. The Blazers were able to get a massive 14 point victory over the struggling Bucks in their matchup last week but the Pistons had a more difficult time. Facing a strong Celtics squad the game came down to the final few positions, but ultimately the Pistons were able to clutch it out and win by 4.

On the opposite end of the standings are the Bucks, Pacers and Warriors who have yet to win a game so far this season, all boasting 3 losses. These three rosters have some work to do if they hope to compete for a championship as they have currently been losing by large margins, often double digits.

Action returns today and tomorrow for the final week of regular season action before the first Mid-Season Tournament.

Combo Breaker

Combo Breaker brought many of the world’s most talented Fighting Game players to St. Charles, Illinois the Mid-West’s premier fighting game tournament of the year.

SonicFox of EchoFox was able to take home the DBZ crown defeating Go1, the champ from the Canada Cup a few weeks ago, in the finals.. NYChrisG of Evil Geniuses continues to demonstrate he is one of the best in the world at the game as well, coming in fourth for yet another impressive top finish at a major event although it was a step back for him. He had been in the last two major finals.

In Street Fighter it was UNL who earned a victory over Xian in the finals to earn the crown of Combo Breaker king. It should be noted that the Echo Fox team that populated the finals in the last major Street Fighter event was not present however.

In Tekken 7 action Knee was able to best Jeondding in the finals to become the current Tekken champion. Multiple other titles were played as well over the course of the weekend and the full results, for each and every game played, can all be found here.